LETTERS: In the age of science and technology, is philosophy still relevant? It's not in the school curriculum. You can't make a living by just philosophising.
But we may be mistaken if we think philosophy is mere abstraction.
From its birthplace in ancient Greece, "philosophia" means "love of wisdom".
In a broad sense, it is an activity we undertake when we seek to understand fundamental truths about ourselves, the world in which we live, and our relationship to the world and to each other.
It is a discipline that builds concepts by applying rational thinking and logic as its tools. This exercise recasts how we see things. It demands critical analysis, could be tiresome and might yield no satisfactory answers.
With it, we explore some very fundamental questions of being human, such as consciousness, mind and self.
How these erudition then culminate in the debate of free will, our agency, responsibility and now artificial intelligence.
It gave birth to the very basic idea of human rights that we enjoy now but take for granted. Liberty, equality and universal suffrage — the bedrock principles of democracy — had a long philosophical discourse since the 17th and 18th centuries' Age of Enlightenment.
If we think that would improve life from then on and bring the best of humanity just look into the digital age we are currently in. Fake news, disinformation and alternate narratives are fomented to appeal to emotions and sentiments.
Are we thinking through what we see, hear and read? Can we still find pearls of wisdom in the torrent of noises? What about the larger picture — the meaning of life?
As modernity seems to strip away modesty and decency with the value system monetised, how do we definehappiness? What makes a good life? How to work towards it?
These are the questions philosophy contemplates and prods us to think about. If not, we could be unwittingly led by market forces, politicians' words or big data algorithms.
Socrates, the father of philosophy, said: "The unexamined life is not worth living". Ironically, Athenian democracy condemned her most famous interlocutor to death for questioning "what is".
In conjunction with World Philosophy Day on Nov 17, now more than ever in the maddening season of rhetoric amidst the humdrum of everydayness, there is no better time to pause and reflect.
CHEAH C.F.
Ipoh, Perak
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times